U.S. advisers with the 24th Battalion were also wary of moving too fast.
"I think that's ambitious," said Kajs, the battalion's senior adviser, when asked whether the Iraqi troops would be ready to take over Nineveh province within a year.
Soldiers from the Iraqi army's 23rd Battalion patrol in downtown Mosul. One U.S. adviser to the unit said, "We need to slow it down and do it right."
(Steve Fainaru -- The Washington Post)
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Kajs and two other advisers work with Iraqis out of an abandoned chalk factory that serves as the base for two companies. The Iraqis sleep on makeshift beds laid out on the factory floor. The advisers sleep in the upstairs manager's office, its sole window blocked by nine green sandbags.
"The biggest problem is discipline," Kajs said.
After one Iraqi soldier walked by, oblivious that the muzzle of his AK-47 was pointed at a reporter's head, Kajs said: "Don't worry, you get used to them pointing their weapons at you."
That day, the unit was preparing for a raid to detain three suspected insurgents in southeast Mosul. Around midday, Army Staff Sgt. Jonathan Bates, a reservist who normally works as an elementary school teacher and National Guard trombonist near Grand Rapids, Mich., took a squad of Iraqis to do some reconnaissance on the targets.
Bates and the Iraqis went to meet a man who would lead them to a suspect's house. Bates waited outside for 10 minutes, then went inside to check on their progress. He found everyone drinking tea and chatting.
Bates sat down and had a Pepsi.
"Um, what are we waiting for?" he said finally before the Iraqis ventured out.
Around midnight, with the reconnaissance completed, the mission got underway. The companies left the chalk factory in the fortified Nissans, two-ton open-air transport trucks and two armored Humvees that ferried the advisers and the reporter. As the Iraqis dismounted and hurried down the darkened street toward their first target, a soldier's radio suddenly squawked loudly, angering Kajs, who ordered him to turn the volume down.
After searching the house and questioning the occupants in a small courtyard, the Iraqis detained a heavyset man who said he was the suspect's brother. The Iraqis then moved on to the next house. Again the radio blared as they approached. The suspect wasn't home. A woman said he had been arrested two years earlier for robbery.
By the time the Iraqis moved on to the third target, the mission had come to a virtual standstill. The Iraqis spent several minutes idling in their vehicles.
"Tell him this is taking way too long!" Kajs yelled to an interpreter, who radioed the message to the Iraqi commander.
At the final target, a mosque, the third suspect answered the door. He stood passively as the Iraqi soldiers fitted him with flexible handcuffs, then blindfolded him with his red head scarf before taking him away.
The 6th Brigade is expected to spend at least two more months in Mosul. After that, a new Iraqi division will cycle into the city, according to Brown. The new division will not be as experienced as the 6th Brigade.
Marine Gunnery Sgt. Kenneth Kurre, an adviser to the 23rd Battalion, said that concerned him. He said he worried that the insurgents were "just biding their time, and when we're gone it'll go back to ass-whuppin' time."
